Chapter 5 Awakening

Anastasia’s body wobbled on the dance floor. The music stretched and thinned until it sounded like a dying heartbeat.

“Asia!” Lucius’s voice broke through the music, distant, desperate, as he shoved his way, pushing through the mass of moving bodies.

The lights shattered into shards. The ground rose and fell too fast. And there came a long, unending beep in her ears, then everything went silent.

Lucius reached her just as her body collapsed. She lay pale on the dance floor, still and fragile, while the world continued to pulsate around her. Her eyes were half-open, the gleaming lights fractured her image into flashes, and her silky hair fanned across the ground like spilled ink. Her skin looked like it was drained of all color, and her face was impossibly calm amid the chaos.

William launched toward the man who cast the spell on her, cutting the distance like a blade cutting through the air. The moment the attacker sensed him, he disappeared into the air like smoke. William felt the shadows around him, sensing the man was not alone. He caught their scent immediately, raw, feral, tainted with fresh blood and unstable hunger.

“Newborns," he whispered.

The warlock beside him sensed it too, stiffened. His eyes went pitch-black as he pulled energy from the room, and the shadows bent unnaturally toward him. He struck first, flinging a spell that ripped like a distorted wave, and it hit them with a sharp crack. The vampires staggered out of the shadow, hissing, their fangs bared, eyes unfocused with frenzy.

Like that was all the signal William`s men needed.

One by one, they emerged from the darkness like wraiths, silent and lethal. The newborns lunged in packs, shrieking and wild, but William's men were faster, older, and trained. They join the fight as if they had been waiting for the moment. A silent battle erupted in the crowd, almost unnoticed by the mortals around them. The enemies were driven out of the club and into the night.

But William remained behind. He stood in the shadow, guarding her while the warlock shielded them.

Lucius knelt beside her, pale and terrified. He kept calling her name again and again, though she could no longer hear him.

Lucius felt the music in the club was thick enough to feel like fog, bass shaking the ground, lights cutting across faces in broken colors. Every pulse of sound seemed to echo from somewhere far. The air vibrated, heavy, charged, alive with things just mortals couldn’t sense.

Lucius’s voice rose above the music, strained and sharp.

“Asia!”

No answer.

He called again louder, the syllables breaking apart in a blinding rhythm. For a moment, he thought she could hear him, but then the energy around him shifted. It was subtle at first, like faint pressure before a storm. The air seemed to draw in and forget to breathe out, suffocating.

“Asia, wake up,” he called, his voice barely audible against the thundering music.

Still no response.

Her pulse fluttered weakly beneath his fingertips, and for a terrifying heartbeat, he thought it might stop. Then something glimmered beside her limp hand, a faint light reflected from her pendant.

Lucius blinked. That pendant had never left her neck. Not even once, since all the years he’d known her. But what perplexed him was the light radiating from it. The necklace was carved from dark wood, circular with faint lunar patterns on its surface.

Lucius reached for it, his fingers recoiled slightly around it. It was warm, as though it had been holding the rhythm of her heart a moment ago.

When Lucius noticed her eyes had fully closed, a tremor ran through his arm. He slid one arm beneath her knees, the other around her neck, and lifted her. The weight of her body startled him, she was too light. The dancers around them blurred into meaningless motion, their faces twisting into confusion and alarm, yet no one came forward. The music went on as if nothing had happened.

He carried her through the crowd, then he felt it again. A tingling along the base of his neck, like a crawling awareness of being watched. The air thickened, every breath feeling heavier by the second. The sound of music warped, becoming distant, stretched. It was as if something unseen had turned its attention fully on them.

He could feel it pressing against his mind, invincible yet suffocating. His body broke out in goosebumps. The instinct to run, to escape, rose violently in his chest.

For the first time, Lucius wondered if Asia’s grandmother had been right all along.

From the shadow, William watched quietly as Lucius tended to her. For all he had seen tonight, the only thing that mattered to him was her safety, only the heavens know how she has been surviving all these years.

Lucius carried her out of the club, into the bursting night, and hailed a cab. The driver hesitated at the sight of her limp body, frowning at the sight of the girl in his arms. Lucius got her in the back seat and slid beside her, cradling her head against his shoulder.

“To the hospital,” he said, his voice trembling.

Behind them, the warlock murmured, “I will get the car.”

“No, William said. “I can't risk that.”

He took off after the cab at supernatural speed, the warlock following close behind.

Inside the cab, the sense of being watched clung to him like a fog that refused to lift. The pendant was still in his palm, radiating warmth like a living thing. His instinct told him to return it to her, and he immediately pressed it gently against her neck.

The air shifted instantly. The invincible weight lifting as though unseen eyes blinked and turned away and the pendant dimmed, returning to normal. Lucius exhaled shakily, but confusion flooded him. The pendant wasn't made of metal, it was made of wood, smooth and carved, bound by leather. So, how could it be radiating light and burning with such unnatural heat?

It doesn't just sit well with him.

After several blocks, William slowed. His expression darkened.

"I can't feel her anymore,” the warlock said, panic tightening his voice. “I can no longer sense her energy.”

William inhaled sharply, searching for her scent. After a moment, he caught a faint lingering trail.

“This way,” he said, and they sped into the night.